Freedom
by unlikely2
Summary: A collection of drabbles.
1. Chapter 1

Author's note.

Well I have just, after nearly 100,000 words, got my first flame. Amazing to have inspired so much apathy. (That was intended to be funny). Anyway, in response.

From Wikepedia.

A **Drabble** is an extremely short work of fiction with _exactly_ one hundred words (or sometimes 100 words maximum depending on the exercise or contest). The purpose of the drabble is to teach brevity and test author's ability to express interesting and meaningful ideas in an extremely confined space.

In **drabble contests** participants are given a theme and a certain amount of time to write a drabble. Drabble contests and drabbles in general are popular in Science Fiction fandom and in fanfiction. The concept is said to have originated in UK Science Fiction fandom in the 1980s, the 100-word format was established by the _Birmingham University__ SF Society_.

The language greatly affects the ease of writing a drabble. For example, the Finnish two-word sentence "Heittäytyisinköhän seikkailuun?" would translate into English as "What if I should throw myself into an adventure?", a sentence of nine words. Therefore Finnish is an easy language in which to write a drabble, whereas English is difficult.

The word drabble comes from the 1971 Monty Python's _Big Red Book_. It was a word game where the first participant to write a novel wins. In order to make the game possible the Science Fiction fandom agreed that 100 words will suffice.

I have an appalling tendency towards prolixity. And long words.

I have been writing for the hp100 community on Live Journal with variable success, given the constraints of the form. Con crit will much appreciated, especially if reviewers are specific.

Please note that while I can hope for internal consistency in 100 words, the drabbles do contradict each other.

* * *

My first drabble is

**Freedom.**

The challenge was 'Independence'.

* * *

He had deceived the Dark Lord but he had been less than completely honest with Dumbledore. The price of this independence is to be his soul. 

The silence is crushing. He is sure that they must hear the little bottle break under his teeth. As bitter poison floods his mouth the chamber comes into sharper focus.

_The Potter boy is crying._

In these last moments Snape can afford compassion. 'Not your fault, Potter. There was nothing you could do.'

Pandemonium. The Minister gestures angrily. The Dementor slides forwards and the prisoner's long fingers clench. Then he relaxes into the chains.


	2. Independence

**Author's note: alternatively . . . a much happier drabble.**

* * *

He had done what was required of him and, much to his own surprise, was still alive. He stood alone on a muggy, traffic haunted, London morning. He could walk away with no more than his wand in his pocket: finally free. The door of Number Twelve Grimmauld Place slammed open and Snape bounced down the steps.

The house vanished and Snape smirked. 'Well Potter, I fancy some beer; are you coming?'

Harry realised that Snape has made the suggestion just because he could. He'd probably think it funny when Harry refused.

Harry understood completely. 'Ok,' he said and smiled.


	3. Preparation

He regarded the potions ingredients. The ingredients looked at him.

The first time he'd been told to do this he'd gone crying to his mother. The resulting row between his parents had been terrifying. He'd been four.

Now he stroked the rabbit, talking gently, until it relaxed beneath his hands. He could not allow other magic to contaminate the ingredients so, as it began to nibble at the grass, he broke its neck.

There'd been no fear or pain. Severus knows this with absolute certainty. Still he hates doing this.

Nextyear he'll be going to Hogwarts.

He'll be free.


	4. Changes

**Changes I**

'Good to see you,' Tonks told them and then, as the trio watched appalled, she grabbed Draco Malfoy and hugged him. ' Take care coz.' She finished mussing the blonde's hair and let go of him. As she left the platform they surrounded him.

'Care to explain?' suggested Harry.

'I've been staying with my aunt in London,' said Draco coldly.

'The one that went and married a muggleborn?' jibed Ron. Ginny smirked and Hermione's chin came up.

'There are worse things,' muttered Draco.

'Are there really?' breathed Ron. 'Such as?'

Draco's expression tightened. 'I think you've met my Auntie Bella?

* * *

**ChangesII**

They realised something was wrong when Snape ambled into the classroom, handed around instructions for potions to be brewed for Madame Pomfrey, and then stood gazing at the sky.

Their bundling Malfoy into a corner was totally ignored. 'Who's that and what's happened to Snape?' hissed Harry.

'That,' replied Malfoy wearily 'is a man with a Metamorphmagus for a girlfriend. He's spent every night this week with the most beautiful girl in the world.'

'And the entire weekend,' muttered Parkinson darkly.

'Bloody wonder he can stand,' added Zabini.

With a twitch of his wand, Snape conjured up a comfy chair.


	5. Loyalty, tenacity, integrity & kindness

**Loyalty, tenacity, integrity and kindness.**

Harry's animagus form had been a surprise.

On the other hand, Nagini had taken one look and slithered off.

As had a silver-pawed rat.

Turning the sleeping Dark Lord into a toad had been no problem at all.

He really, really wished that he hadn't later eaten the toad.

Or bitten Bellatrix's bum. (Fortunately the anti-magical barrier grease supplied by Snape had taken care of the resultant tantrum as he'd blundered away into the night).

Hufflepuff were ecstatic.

As the badger glared short-sightedly at him from the front page of the 'Prophet', Harry concluded that it might have been worse.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

The title refers to the qualities of Hufflepuff House. Coincidentally, these are some of Harry's own characteristics.

Word Count: 100. hp100 Challenge: Predictions.


	6. Cassandra & Innocence Lost

**Cassandra.  
**  
'Death'.

'The Devil'.

'The Tower Struck By Lightening'. Snape sorted through the cards. Nothing he had said had altered the Headmaster's purpose. He didn't like it but he still had to do it.

'The Magician'. Snape sighed.

A spell ensured that, the next time Trelawney shuffled the cards, they would emerge in the right order.

He would obey and go out into the wilderness alone. There could be no hope of survival or even honour and he accepted that. His clashes with the Seer were petty and he knew that too.

Severus Snape was a hero but he wasn't nice.

Word Count: 100  
Challenge: Omens. Portents and Visions.  
Author's note. Cassandra was cursed not to be believed.

* * *

**Innocence Lost.**

The unicorn watches his approach without fear. This isn't the first time. A few precious drops of silver blood and it will be released. They know he means them no harm and their eyes do not reproach him as he wields the knife. He lays a gentle hand upon the shining neck.

In a moment he crumpled, hurting in the undergrowth as the unicorn tries frantically to pull away from him. On its neck is a dripping scarlet handprint. Immediately, fearful of the terrified creature injuring itself, Snape sets it free.

Perhaps the time has come to talk to Dumbledore.

Word Count: 100  
Challenge: The Bestiary.  
Author's note. Only the innocent may approach a unicorn.


	7. Ghost Story

Written for hp100, the Challenge being 'Balance'.

Title: **The tipping point.  
**Word Count: 100

He has thrown away victory. His wand is locked with Voldemort's and now, painfully, Snape is getting to his feet.

He should not have wasted time on Snape.

'A most suitable reward for my most faithful servant,' sneers Voldemort. 'I give him to you.'

Impassively, Snape picks up Rowena Ravenclaw's dagger and then throws it, hard, pinning his victim to the ancient wood of the church door. As Voldemort struggles frantically to break free, Snape leaps forward to hold the weapon in place.

'Traitor,' whispers Voldemort. '_Imperio_! Kill him.'

Harry's world turns fluffy and pink.

_Why not?_

Harry hates Snape.

* * *

Title: **Equilibrium.  
**Word Count 100 

At a distance it appears fragile. In the middle of the bridge, metal columns disappearing into darkness, the rivets are inches across. Wet, starving, cold and exhausted, still Harry wonders at the thing.

His wand falls away into darkness. Gently, he allows himself to tip and then suddenly, pinned against the rain-slick metal, he's struggling with someone he'd believed dead.

'You killed Dumbledore!'

'To save you! Greyback would've ripped your throat out. Dumbledore was already dieing from something he'd ingested. I'd made a vow to protect Draco.' Snape let go of him. 'I'd made the same vow to protect you.'

* * *

Title: **Samhain.  
**Word Count: 100 

'Balancing the damage they'd have done, not just your life and Draco's, against the last few minutes of his; that potion was eating him alive: I'd no choice.'

'So what did he plead for?' Harry asked leadenly.

'For me to help you,' replied Snape. As the moment of death approaches, the rules . . . bend. Dumbledore could see tonight but couldn't do anything. He thought that, perhaps, I could.'

'I thought I'd killed you,' murmured Harry. 'I'm sorry.' They moved aside for a crowd of Halloween revellers. 'What are you going to do?'

But Snape isn't there.

* * *

**Author's note:** this tryptich is (hopefully) suited to the season. I intended to imply that Harry actually had killed Snape and I'm wondering if I've succeeded? 


	8. Retribution

Title: Retribution.  
Author: unlikely2  
Words: 100  
Challenge: 100  
Rating: G

* * *

At the party celebrating Snape's one hundredth birthday, Hermione found the young Muggle accountant hired, because 'magicals lack imagination', vomiting. 

'Talking to the Headmaster,' he'd explained between heaves. 'Offered me . . . toffee . . . tongue all round the floor . . . utterly filthy!'

'Why?' she'd asked, having dealt with the unpleasantness. He'd reminded her of Colin Creevey.

'Don't know,' he'd shuddered. 'Because I'm a Muggle?'

'I think if you'd been a wizard it would've been worse than 'Ton-Tongue-Toffee. Snape's not entirely unreasonable. You must have done something.'

'I just asked him if he'd met Harry Potter.'


	9. Dreams

Title: Dreams.  
Author: unlikely2  
Words: 100  
Challenge: Dreams.  
Author's note: Asphodel and Wormwood: The Draught of Living Death.

* * *

The ghost returns to haunt the scene of his crime. It is here that it happened: here that he forced a friend, who had loved and trusted him, over the edge; to fall out into the darkness alone. After everything, he had not been ready, hadn't been prepared, and no one knew the truth of it.

Again and again he watches Severus fall: at the wands of Death Eaters; of Aurors, at the hand of Tom Riddle; of Harry Potter; at his own hand.

Asphodel and wormwood. As the storm rages, hidden deep within his marble shell, Albus Dumbledore dreams.


	10. Arachnophilia

**Arachnophilia.**  
This one was written for the 'Misunderstandings' challenge. I've just found it.

* * *

'Oh bugger', thought Aragog. 'Here he comes again to bend my aural receptors about his bloody chickens. 

Aragog dislikes chickens. Vicious, beady eyed, arachnophagic . . . tasty though.

Whilst it is true that disciplining those of her children who are sufficiently unwise to attempt to snack upon the giant will solve the problem of what to have for supper, she just wishes that, just for this one time, the overgrown pillock would leave the 'man to man' talk out of it. She wonders if, perhaps, a bit of sexual education might be in order.

It might even be interesting.


	11. Desire

Desire.

* * *

In velvet nights he twists within his sheets. Can the Potions Master get it up? The conjectures of his students do not touch him. Lord Voldemort's experiments with eternity and soul took something from Severus long ago. What was taken could easily have been put back and hence Riddle's conviction that Snape would not return.

Not so. A bottle of deepest blue reposes on Dumbledore's shelf.

All these years.

Intelligence and anger could never make good what's missing and still the absence aches. Severus thinks it would be better if he had it back but doesn't desire it.

He cannot.


	12. 3 Drabbles on ParentTeacher Conferences

Sorry but ffnets messing with my formatting.**  
**

**1 **

**Title: Interview with a Malfoy. Author: unlikely2 Challenge: Parent/Teacher Conferences. Words: 100**

'Filthy traitor. Scum sucking spawn of a philandering politician. You set me up! And don't think I haven't heard about your 'visits' with my wife. Grrr'

'Lucius do stop salivating and get the shackles off my desk. You're scuffing it. I would remind you that you've been brought here to discuss Draco's academic performance. I would also remind you that your appointment is not for another ten minutes, so perhaps you'd be kind enough to wait outside?.'

'The Dark Lord . . .'

'Is not the parent of any child at this school. Unless there's something you're not telling us?

**2 **

**Title: Cut to the chase. Author: unlikely2 Challenge: Parent/Teacher Conferences. Words: 100**

'Unfortunately we don't know quite how he managed to turn himself into a toad, Madam Longbottom, but he is still breathing and this way he's a lot less trouble.' On Snape's desk, the toad licked its eye.

'It's not that I don't see your point, but it's hard to believe that that's my poor little Neville.'

'Well, probably.'

'Pardon?'

'He had detention at the time and it was half an hour before anyone noticed.'

'And what were the children doing in detention?'

'Preparing ingredients.'

'Disembowelling toads?'

'Indeed.'

The old woman blew her nose. 'How will this affect his exam performance?'

**3 **

**Title: Staff meeting. Author: unlikely2 Challenge: Parent/Teacher Conferences. Words: 100**

'Surely you cannot be serious,' hissed McGonagall.'

'Of course I'm serious,' whispered Snape. Dumbledore droned on.

'But people . . . parents traipsing in and out of the school. It's a ridiculous idea. It may suit muggles to allow people who are not professionals to express opinions concerning things they're not qualified . . .'

'Remember that I did not say that I supported it. Only that it was a splendid idea. Which it is, properly employed.' Snape smuggled her something under the table. 'Patented Daydream Charms. Latest thing from the "Terrors". I've confiscated sixteen already this week. Try one.'


End file.
